One he answers himself: of the two underchecked solutions, one is effectively half-checked and the other has only two possible solutions, ethyl and stays, so I don’t think it would have held people up as much as ?a?e?, for example.

Gap is a US clothing store that has become a multinational – the fact that there’s an M&S in Paris doesn’t stop it being English – and it linked in with pant suit, which is what we would call a trouser suit.

Chambers gives IV as an abbreviation for ‘intravenous drip’ and anyone who’s watched American medical dramas will have heard the phrase “Hook up an IV”.

I must admit I didn’t know about the Chili wind, but, once found, it was irresistible.

One or two slight criticisms though: the checking at 3ac and 26ac is bad (although the 3ac one gets away with it because it is combined with 17ac); the fact that Gap is all over the place in the UK makes ‘US clothing store’ a bit misleading, although perhaps it’s strictly true; IV for drip seems a bit odd (although perhaps I should look it up) — IV stands for intravenous I thought and so is an adjective and not the same thing as the noun ‘drip’. I was going to grumble about o for only, but if it’s in Collins then OK.

IV=drip. D’oh! I had even typed a request for an explanation before suddenly it dawned on me.

Loved the Nina.

O for only is in Collins, probably in the sense mentioned by DavidA.

It seems that my Nina has gone unnoticed, and LMAO was my response when, at the Spurs v Inter Champions League game, the Spurs fans began singing the top row of this puzzle.

And tla is three-letter-acronym, fla doesn’t quite work

Thanjs for parsing 17d., Neal, I was looking for something to do with ‘patter’ or ‘prattle’.

for 4d., I had ‘one over the score’, but couldn’t see where the rowing coah fitted in, so changed to the correct answer, which I dont believe I’ve heard – what does it refer to?